Carabus ( Pachystus ) graecus trojanus Dejean, 1826

Pavlou, Christoforos, Bolanakis, Giannis, Kardaki, Ljubitsa & Trichas, Apostolos, 2025, Forty years of ground-beetle sampling in Crete. A major contribution to the Carabidae (Coleoptera, Adephaga) fauna of Crete (Greece), Contributions to Entomology 75 (2), pp. 269-288 : 269-288

4. Carabus ( Pachystus) graecus trojanus Dejean, 1826

Fig. 2 C

Habitat and general distribution.

Carabus graecus trojanus is endemic to Greece ( Arndt et al. 2011). The subspecies, as the other members of C. graecus Dejean, 1826 , live in a broader range of habitats, found in phrygana, maquis, urban areas and forests.

Material examined.

• Heraklion: Heraklion Port , 35.343391°N, 25.153453°E, 1 m elev., 9.X.1989, handpicking, 1 spm, leg. Trichas A. ( NHMC) .

Comments.

Turin et al. (2003) repeatedly mentioned that C. g. trojanus occurs in Crete (although in p. 48, they mark Crete with “? ”). Trichas (1996) mentioned that the original record of C. g. trojanus in Crete by Cecconi (1895) from Chania (as C. trojanus ) was most likely erroneous. Nevertheless, Trichas (1996) himself found one specimen of C. g. trojanus in Heraklion port, which he reported, that differs clearly from the Karpathos island subspecies, i. e. C. t. oertzeni Ganglbauer, 1888 – now considered also as a separate subspecies of C. graecus ( Häckel, 2017) . Thus, C. g. trojanus has been recorded at least twice from Crete in the span of a century. Given the extremely high abundances of the endemic Carabus ( Procrustes) banonii Dejean, 1830 throughout the island (thousands of specimens in the NHMC collections) in almost all habitats; and the systematic and continuous samplings with pitfall traps from the late 80 s till today, we believe that the records of C. g. trojanus in Crete derive from random and not stable dispersal incidents (anthropochorous). The absence of a second Carabus lineage in Crete is an interesting biogeographical problem, since Crete is large enough to host more than one Carabus species, whereas other, much smaller islands host two or more species (e. g. Kythira, Karpathos, Rhodes ( Trichas 1996)).

Figures

Figure 2. A. Calosoma inquisitor; B. Calosoma maderae; C. Carabus graecus trojanus; D. Brachinus plagiatus; E. Brachinus psophia; F. Clivia ypsilon; G. Sirdenus grayii; H. Scarites eurytus; I. Scarites buparius. Scale bars: 5.5 mm (A); 7.75 mm (B); 5 mm (C); 3 mm (D); 2.5 mm (E); 1.75 mm (F); 1.1 mm (G); 6.4 mm (H); 6.8 mm (I).